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Scripture: Genesis 11.1-9 (NAB)
The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire." They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth." LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built. Then the LORD said: "If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says." Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.
Comments
The above story is an etiological tale picturing the beginning of diverse languages and illustrating growing evil and its consequence. The story likely arose from an old oral tale in southern Mesopotamia, the location of Shinar, and pertaining to the ziggurats (which were temple towers of a terraced, pyramid shape--the first skyscrapers), and may allude to the main ziggurat of Babylon: E-sag-ila, implying "the house that raises high its head." The editors give a non-historical explanation for the name Babylon. Hebrew for Babylon, babel, is similar to Hebrew for "he confused," balil. "Babylon," rather, is Bab-ili, "gate of the gods," and does not imply the negative connotation in Genesis.
Regardless of its biased shaping by Genesis editors, the tale provides insight into the perennial problem of social disorder. The theological intent is clear: disunity comes from separation from the One's good intents for nature. Understanding breaks down when communities turn in on themselves to a false unity that is a fearful defense against perceived threat from outside and defies the openness inherit in the One's will for the evolving of nature and society. Community based on fear and, therefore, seeing the "other" as the omnipresent threat will, eventually, begin to fracture into pieces.
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A group may base itself on fear, but communion is based on compassion, in the larger sense of "sharing like feelings, sharing feelings with" and the more narrow "to suffer with." A communion does not retreat from larger society to protect itself or live out a sense of superiority. A communion gives itself as one with all others.
Writes Henri J. M. Nouwen, in Here and Now:
Compassion--which means, literally, "to suffer with"--is the way to the truth that we are most ourselves, not when we differ from others, but when we are the same. ... It is not proving ourselves better than others but confessing to be just like others that is the way to healing and reconciliation.
What did Jesus do the night of his betrayal? He met with his followers and hosted a meal for them and washed their feet, teaching them of the meaning of being a servant. He, then, went to a garden to pray. Jesus, even the night of his arrest, was giving himself, rather than seeking a false safety. Jesus exemplifies communion for us. Jesus did not forfeit openness even when facting impending execution.
Suggested Meditation: In what ways is the Spirit giving you opportunity to learn compassion?
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*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He writes in the spirit of John Wesley's focus on the priority of inner experience of the Triune God; scriptural holiness; ongoing sanctification; the goal of Christian perfection (or, wholeness). Brian seeks to integrate the best of the contemplative teachings of Christianity East and West, from the patristic Church to the present. Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
*Brian's book An Ache for Union, a book of poems on mystical union with God through love, can be ordered through major on-line booksellers.
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